ACTS OF ASSEMBLY PASSED IN THE PROVINCE OF NEW-YORK, FROM 1691, TO 1725. EXAMINED AND COMPARED WITH THE ORIGINALS IN THE SECRETARY'S OFFICE

New-York: William Bradford, 1726.. [10],124[i.e. 128],121-252,261-319,[1, blank],20,[6]pp. (mispaginated, as issued). Woodcut arms of King George I on the titlepage. Folio. Contemporary calf, boards ruled and tooled in blind, raised bands. Wear and soiling to boards, a few spots of loss where leather was stamped, corners bumped, joints cracked (but binding is still strong), small wormhole to spine. Occasional foxing and tanning throughout. Bookplates of Henry F. DePuy and William Smith on front pastedowns (see below), typed note laid in, pencil inscriptions on front free endpaper and titlepage, occasional marginal annotations in a contemporary hand throughout. Very good. In a blue cloth chemise with blue half morocco and cloth slipcase, spine gilt with red morocco gilt label. The Henry F. DePuy copy of Bradford's important early printing of the New York Acts of Assembly, collecting all legislation passed between 1691 and 1725. Included are acts "for quieting and settling the Disorders that have lately happened within this Province" (1691), "for restraining and punishing Privateers and Pyrates" (1693 and 1698), and "against Jesuites and Popish Priests" (1700), as well as numerous acts "for Regulating Slaves" and one for "Baptizing them" (1706). A law of 1712 is "An Act for Preventing, Suppressing and Punishing the Conspiracy and Insurrection of Negroes and Other Slaves," and a law of 1716 prevents the "Selling and giving of Rum or other Strong Liquors to the Indians." Other acts relate to Queen Anne's War as well as the continuing conflicts with the French and Indians. The final twenty pages contain additional ordinances for "Regulating & Establishing Fees" for various public officials and for "Regulating the Recording of Deeds and other Writings."

William Bradford (1663-1752) was the "pioneering printer of the English middle colonies" (DAB) - the first in both Pennsylvania and New York. He originally settled in Pennsylvania, where he began operating a printing press in 1685 and a bookstore in 1688. Controversies within the Quaker community, with Bradford supporting the dissident, George Keith, led to the temporary seizure of his types and paper in 1692, and in 1693 he moved to New York as the colony's first public printer. Bradford's "accomplishments were not inconsiderable and his importance as a printer remains untarnished. His establishment was a veritable seed farm for future printers, having had as apprentices John Peter Zenger, Henry DeForest, James Parker, and his own son, Andrew; and he was himself the progenitor of four generations of printers and publishers. He printed New York's first lawbook (1694), the first published proceedings of an American legislature (New York, 1695), the first New York paper currency (1709), the first American Book of Common Prayer (1706), the first history of New York (1727), and the first copperplate plan of the city (1730), as well as New York's first newspaper" (Alexander J. Wall, Jr., "William Bradford, Colonial Printer, A Tercentenary Review," PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY, October 1963, pp.361-84).

Henry F. DePuy (1859-1924) was an important collector of early Native American material, particularly captivity narratives, as well as American colonial material and Constitutional history. DePuy was also well respected as a scholar, publishing a bibliography of colonial treaties with the Native Americans and another on Jesuit missions in America. At the time of his death, he was working on a bibliography of Bradford. There is also a typed note laid in from George Parker Winship on John Carter Brown Library letterhead, discussing typographical details of this volume. The bookplate of William Smith is accompanied by a note in DePuy's hand:

"This bookplate I bought from a dealer and inserted in this book for the reason that when I bought the book in 1902 from A.S. Clark he told me that he had bought this book with others which he showed me from Mr. DeLancey who had told Mr. Clark that when Wm. Smith the Historian of New York left the country at the close of the Revolution he had left these books with Mr. DeLancey's family for safe keeping. At least one of the other volumes that Mr. Clark obtained at the same time had Wm. Smith's book plate - it was The Laws of N.J."

A major early New York imprint, from the press of its first printer, with a distinguished provenance. EVANS 2785. ESTC W11515. TOWER 613.